Design, fabrication and calibration of a novel MEMS logic gate

Abstract

This paper presents the design, fabrication and calibration of a novel MEMS logic gate that can perform Boolean algebra as well as logic devices composed of solid-state transistors. Unlike existing designs, the proposed design can perform either NAND gate or NOR gate functions using the same mechanical structure, but different electrical interconnects. The proposed design imposes three requirements on the fabrication process: two voltage levels carried on a suspended plate, metal-to-metal contact between shuttle electrodes and fixed electrodes, and a low process temperature (<300 • C). To fulfill these requirements, the residual stress in the fabricated device is substantial which could impair the functionality of the device. Therefore, a novel in situ film stress calibration method is developed to assist the development of the fabrication process. In a prototype design, the fabricated device is 250 μm long, 100 μm wide and of 3.97 μm gap. Experimental results show that the device can operate at 25/−25 V and 100 Hz, and achieve the proposed logic functions. In addition, several properties of this device are experimentally evaluated, including power consumption, on/off resistance, lifetime and resonant frequency.

An Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of a Micromirror Under Mixed-Frequency Excitation

“…Also, seesaw type motion of a micro mirror has enabled the design of complementary universal MEMS logic devices [34,35]. The dynamics of micro mirrors under mixed-frequency excitation has not yet been explored.…”

Design and fabrication of a CMOS MEMS logic gate

“…In our previous study, the functionality of the proposed logic gate design were verified using bulk micromachining processes 3 and in-house developed CMOS-compatible, surface micromachining process 4 . 5 The integration with IC components has not been verified yet.…”

Torsion based universal MEMS logic device

“…Seesaw-relay-based logic and memory circuits have been demonstrated in [23] capable of performing an INVERTER, AND and OR gates. A torsional two layer MEMS logic gate has been reported in [24,25], which is able to perform NAND and NOR operations using a single device structure. This work is based and will build on the ideas in [24,25] to realize an allin-one logic device.…”